Contributors to the Issue

Ivan A. ALESHKOVSKI is Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Global Studies Lomonosov Moscow State University. His sphere of scientific interests is population economics and demography, in particular migration and development, the role of demographic indicators in economic development. He is author of over 150 scholarly publications, including such manuals and monographs as Economics of Population (2007, in Russian), Urban Economics (2006, in Russian), Introduction to Demography (2002, 2003, in Russian), Internal Migration of Population in Contemporary Russia (2007, in Russian), Determinants of Internal Migration of Population (2006, in Russian).

Kavous Ardalan is a Professor of Finance at the School of Management, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA and a PhD in Finance from York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since 2000, he has been a top-ranked author in finance and economic education. His research interests are in the theoretical, practical, educational, and philosophical aspects of finance. Of his research papers, four have received awards at conferences; two have been recognized very highly by the publishers; and three have been referenced in the ‘Handbook of Finance’. His book is entitled On the Role of Paradigms in Finance (2008).

Kenneth BAUSCH is a member of the Global Agoras team. Besides having rich experience in community third sector areas as well as experience as a university professor and priest, he briefly served as the executive director of the Ashley Montague Institute. Dr Bausch co-authored several books with Dr Flanagan including A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures (2011) and Body Wisdom in Dialogue (2012). With Professor Alexander Christakis, Dr Bausch co-authored Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom to Create the Future (2006). Bausch's published books also include The Emerging Consensus in Social Systems Theory (2001) and Body Wisdom: Interplay of Body and Ego (2010).

CHENG LONG is a Professor and Head of the Institute of Modern Strategy, Guangdong College of Public Administration, Guangdong, as well as a Director of the Research Association of Dialectics of Socialism (China). He is author of over 80 scholarly publications, including such monographs as The New Discussion on Deng Xiaoping Theory in Overseas (2004), The Assessment on Sinification of Marxism in Overseas (2009). In recent years, he directed the Project ‘The Research on Chinese Marxism in Overseas’ of the 11th Five-Year Plan of the Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of China, ‘The Total Research on Sinification of Marxism in Guangdong’ of 11th Five-Year Plan of the Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Guangdong (2008). At present, he is in charge of the project ‘Foreign Research on the Model of China’ of the 12th Five-Year Plan of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong (2011).

Tom FLANAGAN is Board President of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras, a nonprofit education organization. Together with Kenneth Bausch, he led the action learning project and have devoted their time to developing the Institute for 21st Century Agoras together with their colleagues. Additionally, Tom Flanagan designed and taught classes at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. His published books include The Talking Point: Creating an Environment for Exploring Complex Meaning (2010; coauthored with Professor Alexander Christakis), CogniSystem(tm) A User's Manual: A Step-by-Step Guide for Collaborative Design (2006), An Online Course in Sustainable Democracy: A Group Decision Making Process (in press), and A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures (2011; coauthored with Ken Bausch).

R. Scott FREY is a Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Social Justice at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has taught previously at George Washington University and Kansas State University, and he has held chair positions at the University of North Florida and the University of Tennessee. He has also held appointments at Argonne National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation. His areas of interest are environmental sociology, development and globalization, and comparative/historical sociology. He is currently preparing a book (under contract with Routledge) on the globalization of health, safety, and environmental risks. He has contributed chapters to recent books on environmental issues and has published in numerous periodicals, including the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, and Social Forces. He has received research funding from the Ford Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of World Systems Research and serves on the editorial boards of Human Ecology Review and Sociological Inquiry.

Leonid E. grinin is Research Professor and Director of the Volgograd Center for Social Research, as well as Deputy Director of the Eurasian Center for Big History & System Forecasting and a Senior Research Professor at the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Age of Globalization (in Russian), as well as a co-editor of the international journals Social Evolution & History and the Journal of Globalization Studies. His current research interests include macrohistory and long-term trends, sociocultural evolution, theory of history, world-systems studies, long-term development of political systems, globalization studies, economic cycles, and Big History studies. Dr. Grinin is the author of more than 330 scholarly publications in Russian and English, including 25 monographs. These monographs include Philosophy, Sociology, and the Theory of History (2007, in Russian); Productive Forces and Historical Process (2006, in Russian); State and Historical Process (3 vols, 2009–2010, in Russian); Social Macroevolution: World System Transformations (2009, in Russian; with A. Korotayev); Macroevolution in Biological and Social Systems (2008, in Russian; with A. Markov and A. V. Korotayev); Global Crisis in Retrospective: A Brief History of Upswings and Crises (2010, in Russian; with A. Korotayev); The Evolution of Statehood: From Early State to Global Society (2011); The Cycles of Development of Modern World System (2011, in Russian; with A. Korotayev and S. Tsirel); From Confucius to Comte: The Formation of the Theory, Methodology and Philosophy of History (2012, in Russian); Macrohistory and Globalization (2012); Cycles, Crises, and Traps of the Modern World-System (Kondratiev's, Juglar's and Secular Cycles, Global Crises, and the Malthusian and Post-Malthusian Traps) (2012, in Russian; with A. Korotayev). E-mail: lgrinin@mail.ru.

Ilya V. ILYIN is the Dean of the Faculty of Global Studies, the Head of the Department of Globalistics, Lomonosov Moscow State University. He is the author of over 200 scholarly publications on Globalistics, including such books as Introduction to Global Ecology (2009, in Russian; in co-authorship with A. Ivanov), Evolutionary Globalistics (2010, in Russian; co-authored with A. Ursul), Introduction in Paleoglobalistics (2011, in Russian; co-authored with R. Gabdullin and A. Ivanov).

Brima Patrick Kapuwa is a Sierra Leonean Doctoral Research Candidate at the Institute of International Studies, Jilin University (China) with research focus on peacebuilding, conflict and security studies, international relations theory, gender and human rights, foreign policy and diplomacy, China-Africa relations and international organizations. He hails from Sierra Leone where he obtained his Bachelor and Masters Degrees respectively.

Kelly MACKENZIE is a graduate student at Flinders University, Participants in the pilot action learning project under the process leadership of Ken Bausch at the Institute for 21st Century Agoras.

Tony MADE is a graduate student at Flinders University, Participants in the pilot action learning project under the process leadership of Ken Bausch at the Institute for 21st Century Agoras.

Janet MCINTYRE-MILLS is Associate Professor at Flinders University and Adjunct Professor at the University of Indonesia. She is responsible for co-ordinating higher degrees and supervising graduate research in the School of Social and Policy Studies. She is author of over 60 scholarly publications, including monographs as Critical Systemic Praxis for Social and Environmental Justice (2004), Global Citizenship and Social Movements (2000), Systemic Governance and Accountability (2006). She has collaborated with Dr Denise de Vries to publish User-Centric Policy Design to Address Complex Needs (2008) and Identity, Democracy and Sustainability (2011). She is a member of the editorial boards of several journals including Systems Research and Behavioural Science, Systemic Practice and Action Research.

Sekh Rahim MONDAL is Chair Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, Centre for Himalayan Studies, University of North Bengal & Honorary Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Bengal, District Darjeeling (WB), India. His research interests lie in area studies, minority studies, gender studies, development studies, health studies, study of globalization and social dynamics, study of indigenous knowledge, study of ethnic groups and ethnicity and study of Muslims. He is the author of Stratification, Hierarchy and Ethnicity in North East India (1991), Dynamics of Muslim Society (1994), Muslims of Siliguri (1997), Educational Status of Muslims (1997), Rural Muslim Women (2005), Jari Embroidery: A Study of a Traditional Craft and Craftsmen of Bengal (2009).

Charles MORSE is a member of the Global Agora Team who led the action learning project under the process leadership of Ken Bausch at the Institute for 21st Century Agoras.

Karl-Heinz POHL Ph.D. in East Asian Studies, University of Toronto; 1987–1992: Professor of Chinese Literature and History of Ideas, Tübingen University (Germany); 1992–2010: retired Chair of Chinese Studies at Trier University (Germany). Fields of Research: Chinese History of Ideas; Ethics and Aesthetics of Modern and Pre-Modern China; Intercultural Communication and Dialogue between China and the West. Selected publications: Cheng Pan-ch'iao: Poet, Painter and Calligrapher (1990), Aesthetics and Literary Theory in China – From Tradition to Modernity (in German and Chinese translation, 2006), Edited volumes: Chinese Thought in a Global Context: A Dialogue Between Chinese and Western Philosophical Approaches (1999), Chinese Ethics in a Global Context. Moral Bases of Contemporary Societies (with Anselm W. Müller, 2002).

Gayle UNDERWOOD is a member of the Global Agora Team who led the action learning project under the process leadership of Ken Bausch at the Institute for 21st Century Agoras.

Arkadi D. Ursul, PhD, Professor, Full Member of the Moldavian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Ecology and Environmental Management Branch of the Russian Academy of State Service under the President of the Russian Federation, the President of the International Academy of Noosphere (Sustainable Development) – IANSD, Founder and Honorary President of the Russian Academy of Astronautics, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Laureate of the State Prize in Science and Technology, Laureate of the National Environmental Prize, Laureate of the Vernadsky medal ‘For contribution to sustainable development’. Author and coauthor of more than 1,100 academic publications, including more than 160 monographs, books and brochures, executive editor of more than 250 edited volumes, many of them have been translated into dozens of languages. Director of the Center for Global Processes and Sustainable Development of the Russian State Trade and Economic University, Faculty of Global Studies of the Moscow State University and Chair of Global Studies and Geopolitics of the Siberian Federal University.

YANG PING is an Associate Professor and Head of the Lending Department of Library, Guangdong College of Public Administration, Guangdong. She is author of over 25 scholarly publications, including such papers as The Research on the Future Development of Chinese Library Science (2006), The Reconsideration on Library Spirit (2006), The Discussion on Three Aspects of Library Professional Ethics (2011). At present, together with Cheng Long, she coordinates the project ‘Foreign Research on the Model of China’ of the 12th Five-Year Plan of Philosophy & Social Sciences of Guangdong (2011).